Yep, you guessed it, this month was spent nowhere else but Frankfurt – or Mainhatten, as some people here like to affectionately call it. And affection is a pretty good way to sum up my feelings for this place right now. Because how else could I possibly manage to go more than …

When night fell on India, it engulfed everything. Street lanterns barely lit up the uneven sidewalks. Auto rickshaws only occasionally turned on their headlights. To walk here at night was to walk in a labyrinth of darkness with blinding bursts of light, a maze of mayhem that could not always …

If you pointed at different places on a map and asked me where all I’d like to go, I’d probably say “yes” to practically every other country. It’s not that I don’t have a travel wish list (trust me, I do), or that I’m a super spontaneous traveler (well, okay, …

I never really fit in growing up in Ohio. My head was buried in encyclopedias and atlases while my classmates talked about the latest pop songs and reality TV shows. I watched documentaries on the Travel Channel and taught myself the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets while my neighbors played football and …

“Udonsoba!” I cocked my head slightly to the left, hardly able to decipher the syllables that were hammered out in one short breath. A look of confusion contorted my face, and I suddenly felt helpless, out of place. Was this a greeting or a command? A question or a statement? …

I can’t seem to go a day without hearing about you, America. You dominate the newspaper headlines when I wake up in the morning, you flood my Facebook newsfeed when I come home from work, and you’re the subject of debates and commentaries on all ends of the political spectrum. …

When I initially sat down to write October’s monthly snapshots post, I drew a blank. There wasn’t that much that happened this month, I thought to myself. All I did was go to Hamburg for a long weekend, take a day trip to the Hanseatic town of Stade, have a visit from …

I’m not sure where I’ve been these past four years in Germany, because honestly, I still have no clue how this place was not on my radar earlier. I definitely rode past it that time I went to Luxembourg three years ago. And I was also ridiculously close when I …

Hello there! I'm Danny, the author behind The Dusty Compass. Originally from the Midwest, I've been living in Germany since 2012 and haven't looked back since. A lover of languages, maps, photography, and window seats, I'm usually either planning my next trip or am already on the road! Want to know more? Click here!